Food security burden on State Rs 1500 cr to Rs 1800 cr

• CM reviews Bill guidelines
• To ask Centre to leave them to State

Hyderabad: Chief Minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy, who reviewed the Food Security Bill Ordinance with officials concerned on Wednesday at the Secretariat felt that the State will have to bear an additional burden of Rs 1500 to Rs 1800 crore to implement the Food Security ordinance. It aims to give subsidised grains to around 67 per cent of India's 1.2 billion people (around 800 million). The Chief Minister said that he went through the Ordinance and Centre is very keen to implement it at the earliest. He said that the Congress chief Sonia Gandhi has convened a meeting of party chief ministers and state unit chiefs on July 13 to discuss the issue. He said that the State government has already been providing food security to the poor through 'Mana Biyyam' and 'Amma Hastam' for the last few months. He observed that the execution and implementation of the Food Security scheme should be given to states for comprehensive implementation of it. He said that the government has been distributing kilo rice for one rupee to all the white ration card holders in the State and that each person in a family is being given four kilo rice under the scheme. "Public Distribution System is being implemented in a perfect manner in the State and good results are coming after PDS has been linked with Aadhaar", he said. Civil Supplies Commissioner Sunil Sarma has told the Chief Minister that the State government would have to bear Rs 1500 - Rs 1800 crore additionally for the implementation of the scheme. Responding to it, Kiran Kumar observed that the State government is allocating thousands of crores of rupees for Mana Biyyam scheme. The Centre should bear the total amount required for the food bill security scheme. "I would like to bring these issues to the notice of UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi at the meeting to be held in New Delhi on July 13", the Chief Minister said. He asked the Chief Secretary P K Mohanty to prepare a report on the objections and views of the State government in implementing the scheme. He also urged the officials to make a list of beneficiaries on the basis of the guidelines of Food Security Bill. After the ordinance, the Bill would have to be cleared by the Parliament. Speaking to the media persons, Minister for Civil Supplies D Sridhar Babu said that the Chief Minister convened the meeting to make the officials aware of the proposed food security scheme. "About 30 per cent bogus cards have been deleted after linking Aadhaar to PDS in some districts. There would be no bogus card if the Aadhaar card is linked in all the districts", he added.